Gin Tonic Manufaktur

One afternoon, sunning with pals in the park Hasenheide, Edward and I took on the simple task of walking to the next corner store to buy some more beers. Somehow though, beers didn’t seem to cut it for our friends’ last afternoon in Berlin. We thought, “wouldn’t it be awesome if we came back with gin tonics?”.

Gin Tonic Manufaktur

After briefly debating whether we should walk into a bar and ask if they would make us cocktails to go, we decided it would be best to make our own–you know, roughing it. The nearest cheapo supermarket provided us with off-brand tonic and budget gin. No limes, and of course (this is Germany, after all), no ice. The nearest supermarket that had ice turned out not to be so close. No problem, except the parched pals were patiently waiting for a refreshing beverage.

So we showed up an hour later — no beers, but hey guys, we got gin tonics!

Incidentally, Ian Frazier writes in his recent New Yorker article about Siberia:

The basic and most common item of Russian roadside trash is the hand-made plastic drinking cup, which is improvised on the spot by cutting off the bottom quarter or third of a plastic bottle that formerly contained water, soda, or beer … In more frequented parts of Siberia, from the Urals to the Pacific, you see these cups along roadsides everywhere.